t from the bank of the river. So heavy,
however, had been the fire from the steamer and gunboats that the
resolution of the enemy failed them, and the gallant crews forced their
way through the embrasures. In capturing the enemy's flag a skirmish
took place between their rear-guard and the leading party of the
British, while the former were endeavouring to escape into the jungle.
Three handsome brass guns were carried off, the iron guns were spiked,
and the magazines destroyed. The steamer then taking the _Royalist_ and
gunboats in tow, passed two other batteries and anchored half-a-mile
below the city, when all hands went to dinner. At half-past one the
expedition was again in motion, working up against an ebb tide of three
knots. As the _Phlegethon_ opened round the point, the city battery and
hill forts mounting 18 guns, commenced firing, and two men were killed
and several wounded on board the _Phlegethon_. She, however, opened a
hot fire, and Captain Mundy shoving off in the gunboats, attacked the
batteries at close quarters; but before he could reach them, the enemy
fled. Nine shot had entered the _Phlegethon's_ side below the
water-line; and had she not been divided into compartments, she would
inevitably have sunk. The marines were now landed and occupied the
heights above the sultan's palace, the batteries on which had been
silenced by the rocket and field-piece party under Lieutenant Paynter.
The pirates had in the meantime manned the batteries already passed, on
which Captain Mundy was sent down with the gunboats to destroy them.
This he partially did in five hours, but so great was their strength
that it would have taken days to do so effectually. Thirty-nine guns,
mostly of large calibre, nineteen of them being of brass, fell into the
hands of the British. The sultan and his boasted army had taken to
flight. He was accordingly pursued by a party under Captain Mundy, to
whom Lieutenant Vansittart acted as aide-de-camp. Having gone as far as
they could in the boats, they landed, and in their progress destroyed
several newly--erected forts. The natives now observing that no injury
was done to private property, joined them and offered their services as
guides. On their way they fell in with two houses belonging to the
sultan, containing shields, arms, and magazines of powder. They were
accordingly set on fire and destroyed, but the sultan himself escaped
for the time, though his power was completel